


Baby Whispering 101

by EllenOfOz



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Baby Claire Novak, Castiel Has a Crush on Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester is Good With Children, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Professor Dean Winchester, Single Parent Castiel (Supernatural), Student Castiel (Supernatural), Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,847
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24805528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllenOfOz/pseuds/EllenOfOz
Summary: When Castiel's babysitter falls through, he has no choice but to take Claire to class with him. But as it turns out, Dr. Winchester isn't so upset about a disruption to his class.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 177
Kudos: 1042
Collections: The Destiel Fan Survey Favs Collection





	Baby Whispering 101

**Author's Note:**

> This was a sweet little prompt from the Palominopup group on FB.
> 
> Big thanks to FollowYourEnergy for some swift beta reading, and my usual beta babes TCB, CB, Jenn and Christa for your cheerleading <3

Cas moves his phone to the other ear as he hikes Claire up on his hip again. She squirms, but goes back to trying to pull the phone out of his hand, rather than trying to escape his arms as she’d been doing just a moment ago.

“Are you sure you can’t get out of it? This is a really important lecture, Gabe, I can’t miss it.”

Gabriel sighs on the other end of the phone. “I’m really sorry, Cassie, I am. But this deal could change everything—they only invited me to lunch this morning and I’ve been trying to get a meeting with them for months!”

Claire wriggles enough that Cas nearly drops her, and he huffs with annoyance, holding his phone in place with his shoulder while putting her down on the tiled kitchen floor. She sits there, looking around in her inquisitive way. 

Cas leans his hip on the counter, grabbing his phone with one hand and reaching up to rub at his forehead with the other. “Okay. Okay, I know how much the deal means to you. I’ll find someone. Let me know how it goes, okay?”

“Thanks Cassie, you’re the best.”

Cas hangs up and looks down, to see...nothing. Claire has only been crawling for a few weeks, and it’s suddenly impossible to pin her down. Cas heads into the living room to see her gleefully chewing on the tail of the grumpy cat toy Gabriel had given him years ago but which Claire had adopted as her own. He releases a relieved breath—toys are fine. Yesterday he’d come out to see her picking up bits of dry cat food, and he’d had to hastily banish all traces of cat things behind a baby gate, save poor Minerva herself. At least she keeps herself well away from the small screaming human on her own.

Who could he call? Anna sometimes watches Claire on weekends for him, but his sister works on Tuesdays. It’s too late-notice to try to get a sitter through the service that Anna had suggested. He curses Gabe all over again, but he knows his brother needs to see this deal through for his catering business. 

There’s nothing else to do—he’s just going to have to bring Claire with him. He can’t miss this lecture—they’ll be discussing the assessment component of the course. Plus, he always looks forward to Dr. Winchester’s lectures, and not just because he always seems to get Cas’ creative wheels whirring—he also happens to be one of the most attractive men Cas has ever met. 

He can feel the blood warming his face just thinking about the man’s low voice and tall, solid frame…along with the crush of guilt. It’s only been seven months since Amelia left, leaving him to look after their baby daughter, but his attraction to Dr. Winchester had caught him by surprise. He’s thrown himself back into college to keep a bit of normality, and without intending to, developed a bit of a crush on his professor. Whoops.

He packs a few things for Claire to hopefully amuse her during the lecture, hefts his messenger bag over his shoulder, then picks Claire up. A waft of something unpleasant floats up to him, and he frowns. “A new diaper for you, Claire-bear, and then we’re off to school.” 

~o~

Cas unclips the baby carrier and lets Claire gently down on the seat beside him. He’d hoped she might have fallen asleep on the drive here, or even the walk across campus to the lecture hall, but she seems unsettled by the activity around her. Going into a lecture when she hasn’t slept at all this morning seems like he’s asking for trouble, but what else can he do?

As he gets out his notebook and pens, to prepare for the lecture, Cas notices Claire yawning and rubbing at her face with her little fists. She’s tired, there’s no doubt. At least he’s sitting by the door at the front of the lecture hall so he can make a quick getaway if he needs to.

Claire makes a break for the edge of the chair and Cas absently puts out a hand to keep her in place. He doesn’t really want to put her on the carpet—god knows what’s down there, and he’s more likely to lose her crawling underneath chairs. Instead he pulls out one of her little fabric toys with the crinkly stuff inside, hoping the people sitting nearby won’t mind the noise too much. 

Claire gives a happy little burble as she takes the toy and shoves it immediately into her mouth. Cas smiles at her. Maybe they can get through this hour. Maybe. 

A shadow looms over Cas’ notebook and he looks up in surprise to see Dr. Winchester, smiling down at Claire. “Well hello, we seem to have a new student here today,” he says quietly.

Cas is frozen in place, but when the professor turns his eyes to Cas, he nearly gasps aloud. He’s never met Dr. Winchester in person like this, only seen him from across the room. Being so close to him really is like staring into the sun. His eyes are green, Cas realizes. Green, and staring at him.

Claire gurgles happily again and Cas is startled enough that he nearly jumps out of his skin. “Um, sorry sir, this is Claire, my daughter. I couldn’t get a sitter, I had one lined up but it fell through and—”

Dr. Winchester chuckles. “It’s cool, man, don’t worry. It’s uh, Castiel, right?”

 _He knows my name?_ Castiel thinks he may melt away into the crack between the carpet tiles beneath his feet. He nods, then quickly adds before the professor backs away, “If she makes too much noise I’ll take her right out.”

“Sure, okay.” Dr. Winchester turns to walk back to the lectern, raising his voice to calm the murmur of the students in the room. “Okay, let’s get this show on the road.” 

Not five minutes into the lecture, Claire drops her toy on the floor. She lets out a cry, and as Cas leans down to fetch it, there’s a chuckle from the class around him. He gives it back to her, and thirty seconds later, she drops it again. 

The third time she drops it and he returns it to her, he recognizes the joyful twinkle in her eye. This is now a game. Completely having lost track of what Dr. Winchester had been saying about the assessment, he tucks the toy back into the bag and instead fetches a cardboard book with brightly colored animals on the front. He tries to refocus on what the professor is talking about.

Claire is not happy with this change of plans. She takes one look at the board book and drops it on the chair beside her, instead grabbing one of Cas’ pens from beside his book and putting the end of it in her mouth.

He carefully takes the pen away from her, but she’s not impressed with that either, letting out a cry that has everyone, including Dr. Winchester, turning to look in Claire’s direction. “Sorry,” Cas mutters, wincing, and Dr. Winchester continues his lecture with only a little smile. 

Cas puts the board book back into Claire’s little hands, wondering how he had ever thought this was going to be a good idea. She lifts one hand to her face again, rubbing at her cheek. And of course, she starts to cry. 

Cas puts his pen down, rubbing his hand soothingly across her wispy blonde hair, murmuring, “Hush, it’s okay. Come on.” He pulls her into his arms, hoping she might just snuggle in and go to sleep, but she shifts uncomfortably, still fussing. It takes Cas another moment to realize that the room is too quiet.

He looks up. Dr. Winchester is standing in front of him again. Cas eyes widen, and he begins to stand up. “I’m so sorry, I’ll take her out of here—”

The professor interrupts, a hand on Cas’ elbow. “No, wait, it’s fine. Give her to me, I can walk and talk.” 

Cas stares at him, not sure what to make of this request. Is he serious? 

Dr. Winchester holds out his arms, smiling at Claire, who had at least fallen quiet as Cas got to his feet. Not knowing what else to do, Cas hands Claire over, and the professor holds her on his hip and smiles dazzlingly into her face. “Hey there, Claire-bear! I’m Dean. We’re gonna go for a walk, okay?” 

Claire just stares up at him, her big grey-blue eyes wide. Cas is sure he must be flaming red, but the sight of Claire in Dr. Winchester’s—no, _Dean’s_ —arms, and his own nickname for her on his lips is making his stomach do weird flips. He sits down, avoiding the eyes of his classmates. It’s bad enough being one of the only mature-aged students in this group, but to have his daughter disrupt their learning has always been his greatest fear in bringing her to campus. Surely they must be annoyed by the interruption, although he does clearly hear at least one person let out a quiet “Aww!” sound. 

Dean continues with the lecture as though nothing has changed. Cas forces himself to concentrate on what Dean’s saying: “Okay, so this whole semester has been focused on creative non-fiction. I want you all to pick a topic you’re passionate about, that you could talk for hours about, and write your essay about it.” Claire makes a happy gurgling sound, and Dean adds, “That’s right, Claire. You agree?” and the class laughs. Cas thinks perhaps he might never be able to come back to this lecture again.

They make it all the way through the discussion on assessment, then break off into groups to discuss the topics they’re thinking of exploring for their essay. 

Cas groups up with the two people behind him, grimacing at them as they give him sympathetic looks.

"I dunno how you do it, man," the young guy behind him says, grinning. "I have a hard time getting any studying done with my little sister hanging around, and she's twelve!"

The girl beside him agrees. "It’s so sweet that you brought her along, though. And Winchester,” she adds, quieter as she watches the man himself walking on the opposite side of the room. “What a sweetheart! I wonder if he’s a dad himself.”

“I don’t think so, he’s unmarried,” Cas says, before he realizes that it makes him sound like he’s been stalking the guy.

A girl in a group behind them looks over, obviously having listened into their conversation already. “Actually I heard that he plays for both teams, if you know what I mean,” she says with a grin. “Nice work, bringing your baby in to score.” 

“What? No, I never…” Cas begins, but trails off as he wonders if that’s exactly what he’s unwittingly done. 

“Sure,” the girl in his group laughs. “Are you looking after her while her mom goes back to work?" 

The mention of Claire’s mom helps Cas to recover his composure. He’s sure that his nosy classmates are going to give him a heart attack any moment now, but at least he can answer this question. He’s been fielding questions about Amelia for months now, and deflecting people’s pity and distress on his behalf. He’s pretty good at holding things together, at least until he gets home and can fall apart in private. "Uh, no. She's not with us anymore. It's just me."

The girl’s eyes widen as she backtracks. "Oh fuck, sorry, I didn't…sorry, dude." She stops talking as her eyes lift to someone standing behind him. 

Cas spins around. 

Dean is standing there. "Sorry, she's just getting a little yawny again."

Cas unsuccessfully wills his heart to slow. "Thanks, you didn't need to do that." He holds out his arms for Dean to give Claire back to him.

But Dean just shakes his head. "No, that's not what I meant. You came in with a carrier, right? Pass it up."

"You…you're going to—" 

Dean grins. "Yeah, she's getting sleepy."

Cas picks up the baby carrier, then passes it to Dean as Claire holds out her arms for Cas to take her back. She really is getting tired, because she puts her head on Cas’ shoulder as Cas watches Dean in disbelief. He buckles the carrier around his slim hips, then looks up at the class, narrowing his eyes. "What’re you all looking at? Never see a dude carry a baby before? Get back to work!" 

Cas is absolutely sure he would happily fall into a crack in the earth, if one would only open up and take him right now. There's no way Claire is gonna go for this. He gives it thirty seconds before she starts screaming, tops. 

But when he hands Claire back to Dean and helps him to clip the top clasp behind his shoulders, Claire doesn't make a peep. 

Perhaps worst of all, when Dean turns back towards Cas, he gives him a _wink_ before he turns and wanders away. 

Before he sinks back into his seat, Cas turns to look at the room. Many faces are turned towards Dean, smiles on their faces. He’s still mortified that his teacher is doing a better job of parenting his baby than he is, but perhaps he isn’t about to be the laughingstock of the whole campus. In fact, it’s possible that Dean’s just managed to make this entire class fall in love with him.

As Cas turns back to his group and they start discussing their ideas, Dean paces past behind them. He's humming something, murmuring some words, but Cas can't quite make it out. If his heart wasn't already a puddle, what he sees when Dean turns to walk the other way has him suddenly unable to breathe. Claire is asleep, her cheek resting comfortably on Dean's chest, her little face peaceful. 

The girl a couple of rows behind Cas murmurs to her friend, "Oh…I think my ovaries just exploded." Her friend gives a "Mm-hmm" of agreement. 

Cas’ groupmate turns to him, saying, "Hey, you could write about this."

Cas blinks at her. About his crush on his professor that just got turned up to eleven? He clears his throat, asking hoarsely, "This?"

"For your essay, yeah. The difficulty of studying as a single parent. Or the expectations for single fathers."

Cas considers, wondering if he could bring himself to put his life into words. Dean had told them to write about something they know, that they're passionate about. Perhaps he could. 

Before long, Dean’s voice comes from the front of the room. "Okay, time’s up! And actually, that's all we've got for today. There's no particular work to hand in for this week, but I'd like to see some thought and planning put in for your essay, please." 

As the students pack up and file out of the room, Cas hastily shoves everything into his bag, including Claire’s toys. He looks up to see Dean approaching, Claire still sound asleep in the carrier. 

Cas is sure his heart is still beating at coronary speed. He’s all at once thankful that Claire is finally asleep, guilty as hell that he interrupted the lecture so severely, and also incredibly embarrassed, not to mention that he’s completely in awe of this man, who dealt with a disruptive situation with such grace and kindness. 

“All set, Castiel?” he asks quietly, one hand on Claire’s back on the outside of the carrier. 

“Uh, yeah. It’s just Cas, though,” Cas says, immediately berating himself for being awkward. “Thank you. For doing that, I mean...she hadn’t had a nap this morning, so she must’ve passed out pretty hard.”

Dean smiles, his face lighting up in a way that sends a jolt through Cas. “Don’t mention it,” he says, his smile softening as he looks down to Claire’s sleeping face. “I look after my brother’s kid now and then—she’s not the first I’ve bored to sleep.” 

Cas shakes his head. “Not at all. Your voice, it’s, uh… very soothing.” Fuck, what is he talking about? He holds up a hand, gesturing for Dean to turn around. “Here, let me unhook you.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t want to wake her, though. Have you got another class now? How’s a coffee sound?”

There goes that jolt of excitement right through him again. He’s aware that he’s staring at Dean without answering, but he’s not sure at this point whether Dean is actually hitting on him, or trying to kidnap his daughter. 

Dean sees his hesitation and adds, “Just so that she can have a proper nap, of course. I know what my nephew gets like without it.” He rolls his eyes.

Cas smiles. “I’d love that, thank you.”

Claire snuffles sleepily as they leave the lecture hall together.

* * *

Edited to add this [amazing art by MOEM](https://masterofevilmonkeyness.tumblr.com/post/621454624999735296/i-read-ellen-of-oz-new-fic-and-was-inspired-to)! Thank you so much!

**Author's Note:**

> We all need a little fluff now and then :) Thanks for reading!
> 
> If you liked this, would you consider sharing it?  
> Here's a [tweet](https://twitter.com/Ellen_of_Oz/status/1273972762491535362?s=19), or here's a [tumblr post](https://ellen-of-oz.tumblr.com/post/621357799948124160/ellen-of-oz-making-this-destiel-please-stand). Thank you!


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